The present invention generally relates to databases and more specifically to apparatus and methods for quantifying the impact of wasteful operations on a database system.
Enterprise databases continue to grow in size and number resulting in increased systems management and administrative complexity. As the size and complexity of a database system increases, the likelihood that performance problems may result also increases.
Correction of a problem is often expensive and time-consuming (e.g., some database performance problems are due to improperly written applications that can take many months or years to rewrite); thus, it may not be feasible to correct all the problems that are detected. Eventually, a database administrator may analyze the performance problems and attempt to determine which problems should be corrected first. In some cases, the database administrator may fix what the administrator deems as the most serious problems to the database system. The database administrator may determine that the problems are the most serious from prior experience or by the class of problem that is being experienced. For example, an administrator may deem hard parses to be the most serious. Although a database administrator may think certain problems are the most serious, the problems may not be. Also, some database administrators may fix the problems that are most easily solved. Thus, the problems that impact database system performance the most may not be a high priority for correction or may not be fixed at all.
Accordingly, methods and apparatus are needed to quantify the impact of performance problems on a database system.